Local Web - serving your home network
A web server is one of the most useful, adaptable things you can have running on your home network.
I think people are scared of running web servers because they picture getting hacked. But there’s absolutely no need to expose your web server to the Internet at large.
Keep it local and suddenly web development is truly fun again. Here’s some cool stuff you can do with a web server:
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Write CGI scripts - they’re not that much harder that command line scripts, but they open up a new dimension of easy GUI interfaces (HTML forms) and accessibility from non-traditional computers (add a TODO item from the bathroom!)
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Host files - there is still no easier way to get a file to any device with a network connection than from a web server - put it on your web server and now you can download it from any computer-like thing in the house!
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Keep calendars or even little family blogs
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Test-drive your web development locally before having to expose it to the Internet
Once you start doing stuff with it, I bet you’ll start thinking of more ideas. It’s like the fun old days of the Web before we really worried about security and malicious users.